The reflection on the importance of the open seeds is not of local importance, but global, and especially relevant for Latin America. Last week, we had the opportunity to share it in La Paz, Bolivia, in the context of an international training for development leaders. Anabel Marín, director of Bioleft, participated as a speaker in the course of Design and evaluation of innovation policies in developing countries of United Nations University-UNU MERIT, where she came into contact with agents of change from around the world and shared ideas on the scenarios of innovation in seeds.

In the context of the course, Marín gave two lectures in the track of Instruments and Policies for Innovation in sectors based on natural resources. The first, “Natural resources and sustainable innovation: overview”, worked as an introduction to the problems of tension between industry and natural resources in the region. The second, “Environmental innovations related to natural resources: some interesting cases from Latin America and the Caribbean”, presented concrete examples of innovative initiatives. Among them, Bioleft.

The case of open seeds arouses interest worldwide because it is natural resources that contain innovative potential, but that depend on public policies and the right private alliances to develop their potential to the fullest. In Latin America, it is also strategic, and calls on actors from different sectors to collaborate to build common knowledge. In the course, they served as an example of original innovation policies, which work through horizontal participatory processes.